Bricked Another Darwin: Troubleshooting My Setup

I'm the problem. I bricked another Darwin, and I have to be doing something wrong. TinyAPE was acting nuts after flashing the ELRS 500mhz preset. I decided to start from scratch, got the hex file from Darwin's site, loaded it, got the same bootloader error I was getting on my work machine, so I ran the ImpulseRC Driver Fixer, bootloader problem solved.

Rig connected just fine. Got the warning that the motor protocol needed to be set. Per Darwin's info, it's DSHOT300. I set the protocol, save and reboot. FC is dead.

I need to understand what I'm doing wrong. I haven't left out any steps that I took. I don't know if it matters, but I always pause my VPN when making changes in Betaflight. I can't think of anything else. Any tips would be great.

RIP Frankie.